R2server

[crazybillybob]

Sounds complex, but you definately got what it takes to pull it off, looking at what you've done so far. What sort of battery are you going to use in there? I'm assuming that you're chucking the battery that came with the scooter-and a car battery's probably too clunky and heavy, right?

-Dave

Actualy I'm useing tha Batteries that came with the scooters, just for running the scooter motor. Their already wired for 24V I think there 4.5 or 7AH (don't remeber off hand) and with 200Lbs on a scooter made for 100Lbs they ran for 1H+...Hay I needed to make sure it worked before I tor it all apart!

I'm looking at a 12V 12AH Batt to run the PC, American Science & Surplus has them for $9.95. I was planing on running 2 of them in parrallel that will give me 12V @ 24AH.....That should be some nice long run Time on the PC.
Down side is with 6 Batts that is about 40# of weight added to R2....I'm afraid he maybe a heavy little fella (150#+).

My big issue is the charging system. I need to find away that when I plug R2 in that the PC switches to the AC power unit with out rebooting. As well a way to protect the Drive battery charges, so that the when charging the batteries are disconnected from the load. I think I can do this with a set of DPST switchs...Just haven't put allot of time in figuring it out yet.


Crazybillybob

[crazybillybob]

For all those Readers at home that are keeping Score, I laid down my first beads in MI last night (welded)....And my garage is still Standing (there was some unfounded concerns about me starting a fire with the torch in my family!). I was able to Weld the channel into the center foot last night.

I weld much better then I braze...(the braze is the brassy gold color in there)

I also ran into some issues while trying to mount the doors. It seems that as the fiberglass has finished curing and aged it has flattened out. So I'm trying plan B. I'm going to make up a plywood Door Frame then mount the styrene to it. (Note separating the Styrene from the Fiberglass was a nightmare...Gorilla Glue does a Very good job keeping it where you put it!)

I'm going to do a little more design work, as the setup pictured allows the door to flex to much and nothing lines up right.

Also I looked deeper into the motor mount issue. As you can see in this pic there is no way that the motor & Motor mount will fit into the foot shell this way.

So I'll be cutting it in these locations and flipping ever thing over (mount the motor on the outside of the plates where it is on the inside now). This should make everything line up just for the left foot instead of the right.

Not bad for 3.5 hours work I hope to get the motor mount cut up tonight, and maybe the door frame finished.

Thanks for stopping by, and come back soon,
Crazybillybob

[crazybillybob]

Ok,
Here's the Diagram for the AC to DC power switching for the PC.

Let me know if you see some thing amiss.

Thanks,
Crazybillybob

[crazybillybob]

Last night was a night of mixed emotions......
I went ahead and cut the motor mounting bracket. Here is a comparison pic of the completed (working) motor mount for the right foot and the new setup for the left foot. I just took the outer plates and flipped them over (basically turning it inside out). Looks like it will work great!

So I set to work welding the mount back together, Everything was going well when I got to this point.

As I went to weld the back of the angle I found that I was out of gas, not tired but my Acetylene tank is Dry.....So no more welding till I get it filled! I'm looking into where I can have it filled (or trade it in) here in Lansing, hopefully they will be open on Saturdays, If not I'll have to send my wife next week (she's on spring break from Vet School!).

Why did I say mixed emotions? I was really happy that the fix was going to be that simple (still allot of work but not overly complicated), and to be so close and not have the power to do any thing about it...is frustrating... But finding the silver lining, as it was 11:30pm I figured I should get some sleep and I'll start in on some of the wood and plastic stuff tonight! (that back DOOR!!! I want to get it done, and seeing as my wife told me I was going to finish the dry walling in the garage as well as rip out the old work bench Saturday. So she could finish and install the new ones over spring break, I'm not sure If I'll get time to work on R2 this weekend. Tonight will have to be door night.

Thanks for the kind words, and the support, stop back again.
Crazybillybob

[crazybillybob]

I did get some R2 work done this weekend, but not much Dry walling (Had to demo the old stuff in the way But It will get done this week).

I was able to get the Rear door to fit in place using the plywood Arches I cut before and then running a 2" wide strip of Plywood up each side (I routed out rabbits for each arch). It fit great when I had it taped into place.

I epoxied the frame together then the skin to the frame. After the epoxy dried I pulled the tape and clamps, some of the skin pulled away from the frame (didn't use enough glue!) No big deal I'll fix it later, and I have a couple of body frame rings that will have to be trimmed back for better clearance, but I'm much happier with the fit this time! Here look for your self.

The Door work was on Sunday night. Last night I started work on one of the detail pieces. It's a vent on the side of R2 under his legs...hence it's called a side vent. I have to modify it a little bit because I want air to be able to pass through the vent (on the "Real" R2s there just for looks) but I'm not that far yet.
I started with a drawing of the piece that I had transferred to card board and cut out to make a template.

I made the template because I need 2 of these parts and easier with a template then the spray glue method I like. The Outline was trace onto a sheet of 1/8" aluminum. I'm going to go off on a tangent here, The Aluminum that I'm using here is 3001 or 3031.... IF YOU CAN DON'T USE IT. It's real soft and it gums everything up and it flexes so much that I could not cut the inside details with a jigsaw. If you're going for small details pick up 6061, I've used that on most of the other parts I've made for R2...It's some much easier to work with, cause it's just a little harder.

I cut out the slots in the plate with a 4 1/2" angle grinder (the dremel cutoff wheel just loaded up with Aluminum and bogged down the dremel) So the cuts are rough...real rough. I drilled a hole at the head and tail of each slot (so the waste strip could fall out). I would like to emphasize safety glasses again, I busted one of my 4 1/2" cutoff wheels on this and pieces of it bounced off my safety glasses, I still got some grit and dust in my eye but at least I still have an eye!
Once I got the slots roughed in, I attempted to use a carbide burr on the dremel to chew away allot of the excess material....no luck this stuff just gummed up the bur...So I when at it with some hand files. That's the only good thing about this aluminum...it files well.

Here's the part when I called it a night (1am), the top 2 slots have been filed down (there's still some light filing to do, and the corners need worked, but that work can be done in the house where it's warm)
The bottom three slots have just been touched up a little with the burr and the dremel (knocked the slag and real high spots off so they file better).
Hopefully I'll get this or some drywall knocked out tonight after work.

Thanks for stopping by,
Crazybillybob

[crazybillybob]

Well With a little bit of Filing with my "Little" File, I've got the Slots smoothed out mostly. Still need a little work in the corners and ends.

My "Little File"

The Vent

Last week at the end of the week I got a neat surprise. I received a laser cut plastic dome ring. Thanks Andy. It's of the Same design as the wood one I made a few weeks ago.

the plastic one.

the wood one.

Now I just need to get it mounted.

CrazyBillyBob
LocalNut Job and Astromech Tech.............Part Jawa, Part Wookie

[crazybillybob]

Dave,

I've got allot left. Not all the electronics are done ....maybe 20% are complete. THe frame and bbody are 90% complete. I still have to etch the dome, wire the whole thing up, mount the last motor, mount the center leg (and foot shell). Then thereis the PC install...Haven't even started that. I'm probibly 60% complete with all of R2.....Big thing Is PAINT...It's gotta get warmer here some time!

This will be a fixed 3 Leged R2...I had to give up the space for 3-2-3 mech to the computer. It's cool because I've been using ILM's carbon fiber R2 as my referance, it's a fixed 3 legger as well.


Well off to work in the spice mines again!

Crazybillybob

[crazybillybob]

Hello R2 Fans, Well another weekend has come and gone....And I have more progress to report (and Pics for you!). This installment of the R2Server Worklog will be Pic heavy, I had a camera women in the workshop on Saturday so there's action shots for you.

The goal of this work session is to get the panels cut into the center foot shell. The Panels allow access to the wheel and the mounting bolt for the foot to ankle connection on the center foot. So the panels need to be removable. Plus they add the extra little detail that's on the Real R2.

We start by laying out the cut. The goal is make all the black disappear.

Then Make some starting cuts with the Dremel, so I can get the jigsaw balde in and do most of the cutting. The Jig saw cuts through the sheetmetal faster then the dremel (and cheaper....I use less cutoff wheels this way). Here's what the cuts look like after the jigsaw.

The turns in the corners were to tight to get with the jigsaw, and there is not enough clearance between the steel and the channel on the top. These areas will be cut with the Dremel.

I think that's the first shot of me actualy working in this worklog
After some dremeling this is what you get.

And after yet more cutting.

Now the Center sections that were cut out will be reused as the panel doors. To keep them from falling back into the foot shell I made up some sills that will be welded into place.

The sills are laid out on the sheet metal and cut out with tin snips.

Now before I weld everything in It's test fit time. Masking tape is for holding things in place.

After a little heat and some Welding Rod.....

I've still gotta make the clasps that hold the panels in place yet allow them to be removed for maintenance, but this is what the shell will look like.

I've got some Ideas for the clasp just need to make one up, and test it.

Let me know what you think.


Crazybillybob

[crazybillybob]

There was progress made on the R2 front ! R2Server is now on 3 Legs. Yeap 3 Legs. I also worked out a panel mounting system for the center foot shell panels. This took a bit of playing and trail n Error, but it works!

To be able to mount the third foot I had to cut out an area the size of the foot shell in the bottom ring (more of those real R2 details, as it's there because that's where the foot would go when r2 is in 2 leg mode....which mine doesn't do!). I started by drilling a hole near on of the corners (yeap it's a little 2.5" hole....Had the hole saw in the drill for running the gas pipe in the body and was too lazy to take it out, but it worked ).

Now A little Jigsaw action and bob's your uncle I'm done.

A little aside, as you can tell from the above pics...there's carpet there, yeap it's the middle of the living room. If your married and you whip out the jig saw and start cutting 3/4" plywood in your living room...be prepared for some flak..... I'll tell you my wife is great! I've done all kinds of R2 building this winter in our home (in the living room). But I've been told many times (by her and others) that most wives don't take to kindly to that sort of thing. So be warned!! Back to the Building


To connect all the legs together (better weight transfer) and maximize space. I used 3/4" Black steel gas pipe. There are floor plates on each outer leg, a union and a Tee between the two legs.

Here I'm getting the connections good and tight.

Once everything was nice and tight I installed it into R2 (that's why there's a union there....)

The third leg (a long piece of pipe) is attached to the downward leg of the tee. The ankle and pipe are joined by cutting a 1/4" notch out of the pipe slipping the ankle in and running 2 1/4" bolts through the pipe and ankle.

The Foots on but what about the panels?

Well I simply welded a tab across the top of the panel (sorry no pics?).
That was the easy part. Then I had to figure out how to latch the bottom. The Answer Clips. I brazed on 2 #8x32 machine bolts to the back of the panel.

Then I made some wing clips out of scrap sheet steel, bent to perfection (ok hillbilly perfection) and used a cut down #8x32 Machine screw to hold it in place.

The Finished Product from the outside.

With R2 Standing on his own I just had to slip a few details that are laying about in place and take a Work In Progress Pic. (haven't had one for a few months). as you can tell I'm really excited about this....In fact my wife kept telling me to go to bed (it was only 1Am) but I couldn't till I got this shot.....

The End is in sight, I was really worried that I wouldn't finish before MML. Still no guarantee...but I feel a whole lot closer (for the moment!)

Let Me know what you think,
CrazyBillybob

[crazybillybob]

I was pretty busy this weekend working on R2.

I was able to get the second foot mount mostly welded up (still have to attach the mounting points)

After these welds I was out of O2....so I moved on (got the tank refilled Monday so we're good to go!)

Most of Saturday was spent fighting with this skirt template.

The Problem is that it's curved and on an angle. so the angles are complicated. It took 10-12 templates to get it figured out.

I got all the plastic cut out and mocked up.

Then started the glue up (it's held in with Epoxy....don't want it going anywhere! and I ran out of Rubber contact cement).

[img]hhttp://www.thebestcasescenario.com/cbb/R2/Skirt_cap_glue_big.JPG[/img]

Still have 2 more pieces to glue on, then I'll get you more pics.

When I was making the Utiliy arms a few months ago I had one slight mishap, on the second arm the band saw blade snagged the hand and snapped it off. So I started laying out a new hand.

The Arm is shown too.

Here I've got the new hand cut out and I was toying with the Idea of giving it a pivot point (it's the shaft of a pop rivet). I don't care for the look, and the hand slides off to easy. Think it's getting glue together.

I also Ordered R2's Computing parts.

From Mini-box.com


VIA EPIA MII12000

M2-ATX DC-DC ATX Automotive Computer Power Supply

AC-Dc 12V 8.5A Power Supply

From Newegg

Seagate 250Gb 7200RPM IDE Hard Disk

CORSAIR Value Select 1GB DDR400 Ram module

I also contacted a fellow R2 builder that created these display boards for the group @ C3.

He's going to make me a set for MML (so I don't have to stand by R2 for 4 days answering the same Q's)

Lastly my wife and I got a few new tools from Home Depot. They are having a "Power Tool" sale you get a gift card back for so much if you spend so much, also they're having "a sign up for a Home despot credit card save 10%" drive too. So being the tight wads we are we did both.
The rough price for all was about $700, we paid about $600 and will get a $125 gift card too. Now we just have to wait 3-4 days so the balance can post then I'll pay that card off (and not use it again )
Yeap, My Tax Refund came in

Now I can look forward to assembling more stuff. Wife wants some shelves and cabinets made, now that I have the tools, crap she always finds away around my excuses!


As Always let me know what you think!

Crazybillybob



What the heck to they mean insert tab A into slot B....There's not slots just a bunch of square holes?